The Life of David Gale
Cast
N/A
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #2
5/10. For those who call Fahrenheit 9/11 senseless propaganda, I suggest
they see The Life of David Gale. This movie, both subtley and
unsubtlely, deals with the death penalty and liberal views on the
subject. I really have no stance on the death penalty, so that
doesn't really affect my rating of the movie. But I'm sure many,
critics and moviegoers alike, were either overjoyed or deterred when
finding out the political themes in this movie. However, I mainly
overlooked them and tried to enjoy the movie for its superficial
qualities-but I have to say, there weren't that many.
David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is a prominent philosophy professor who is
also an anti-death penalty advocate. He's accused of raping a former
student (of which he's not guilty), and then accused of raping and
murdering his colleague and fellow advocate Constance (Laura
Linney). But did he? He sends for reporter Bitsey Bloom (Kate
Winslet) to come and interview him so that he may show that he's
innocent. The movie then shows his life in flashback.
The main problem I could find with this film is the director, Alan
Parker, who I last saw mutilate Fame. He's obviously getting old and
wants to stay hip with all the new advancements in moviemaking, so
he throws in some empty style. There are some very quick shots of
pieces of paper that have various words on them for no reason-they
(as in the papers) are not even mentioned in the film at all. He
cannot pace the film at all-it all begins way too slowly. It's not
exciting at all throughout the first 80 minutes or so. All that
happens is some boring scenes with Parker's wanna-be cool directing
and some painfully unfunny one-liners that are spit out by Bitsey
and her intern Zack (Gabriel Mann), followed by some pithy sayings
by Gale. It's not until it's too late that the movie turns around
into some exciting scenes, with actual plot developments coming
along. But it's too late.
The screenplay by Charles Randolph (whose name is the name of the
motel that is featured...clever, eh?) is ok. It has its moments, but
too often seems to be going for the "quote that will live on for
centuries". There are too many that are thrown out there. One great
compliment I have for this film is that it kept mystery in
throughout the movie-I certainly didn't see the end coming. But when
you have Kevin Spacey sleepwalking through his role, Kate Winslet
trying to build herself back up to the Titanic height of stardom she
had, and Laura Linney acting surprisingly well, it's not enough to
save this film's flawed first half.
Rated R for violent images, nudity, language and sexuality.
Running time: ? minutes
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